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Monday, July 2, 2012

Writer's Cramp and a Cannibal's New Shoes

I highly recommend any potential writers out there to join www.writing.com and try out the Writer's Cramp. This is a forum to enter a Writer's contest every 24 hours, get creative and follow a given prompt, and get fast feedback from the judges, as well as other people following and reading the entries. Just keep your stories under 1000 words! It's really fun and gets you to think out of the box. Plus, if you win, you get a major ego boost.One of my recent favorite prompts was: Write about a cannibal's new shoes. And this was my entry. Enjoy!Beauty and the Shoe She knew she only had herself to blame. Sitting
in front of her mirror, she ran a brush down burnished chestnut hair.
Elyse turned her head left, then right. The delicate oval shape to her
face only accentuated her loveliness. Long, thick lashes rimmed wide
blue eyes. She was slim, but fit, and had the perfect amount of curve to
her body. She was beautiful, and that’s what she asked for, she thought
bitterly. But what a price to pay.

She remembered the moment as if it were yesterday. She had been poking
around different antique shops one Saturday in the middle of fall. The
wind had just started to pick up, and swirled a tornado of color in the
streets—red, yellow and brown. If she hadn’t been in such a bad mood,
she would have been delighted by the sight; autumn was her favorite time
of year. But as it stood, she could only think of Josh’s kind but quick
letdown. “I only think of you as a friend,” he had said, when she
expressed her interest. She wasn’t surprised but still disappointed. She
had let herself believe that this time, things would be different.

The sign outside of the store said “Mr. Upton’s Unique Gifts and
Collectibles.” She had never seen it before although she had perused
antiques on this street many times before. Several dolls with their
painted smiles sat on different shelves. An ancient, dark violin sat in
the corner. A set of china decorated with blue violets with one of the
cups chipped on the edge was on display. Then in the corner, a faint
gleam caught her eye. It was one of those old-timey oil lamps that
looked as if a genie would come out of it and grant three wishes. She
stood closer to it. A distorted reflection stared back at her. She had
always struggled with her weight and gazing at her already wide face
being stretched out even further was almost too much to bear. She
snatched the lamp from the shelf and stalked to the cashier.

She supposed the man standing there was Mr. Upton. He was small, had
creepy smile, and long beaked nose. “This all for you? Good choice. Hope
you get what you are looking for,” he said as he rang her up. What a
strange comment, she had thought at the time. She was buying the thing,
right? Before she changed her mind, she grabbed the bag and almost ran
out of the store.

That fateful night, she sat by the mirror, knowing that the reason Josh
had turned her down was what she saw in the mirror. Stringy hair that
couldn’t be tamed, crooked teeth, and just too much flesh everywhere.
She took the lamp out of the bag, laughed to herself, and rubbed the
surface. Much to her surprise, a green cloud floated out of the lamp. It
was a genie.

“You get one wish,” said the floating green man. “But beware, there is always a price with magic.”

She couldn’t believe this. But she took her chance while she had it. “I want to be beautiful. I don’t care what the price is.”

The genie nodded and disappeared.

She looked back at the mirror. She looked the same. Must have been some
sort of odd hallucination. Maybe she had been out of the sun too long.
Suppressing her disappointment, she brushed her teeth and headed to bed.

The next morning, she felt different. She ran to the mirror. She was beautiful, just like she had asked.

Yes, that had been exciting, she thought, as she continued to brush her
hair. Initially, she did think that it was worth it until she realized
what the price was. She had to eat human flesh daily to maintain her
beauty. That was the only way. What made things worse is that she craved
fresh human meat. Every time that she had gone too long without eating,
she started to drool around people—the worst was when it was someone
she was dating. She had… eaten a couple of them.

But tonight had to be different. Josh had noticed her finally and was
taking her out on their first date. She noticed that one thing that
helped was getting the most uncomfortable shoes possible. If she was
worried about the pain in her feet, she didn’t have time to think about
how hungry she was.

She had found the most amazing shiny red stilletos. Hot, 6 inch heels
that made her feet feel like a nightmare. She found a slinky red number
that delineated every curve in her body. She was going to give him a
night he’d never forget.

Josh picked her up and marveled at her outfit. “You look… amazing,” he stuttered.

The date was going perfectly with Josh hanging on her every word until
gorgeous Liana, his ex-girlfriend stopped by the table. After Liana put
one well manicured hand on Josh’s arm, he was a goner. He had enough
manners to finish the date with Elyse, but he was very distracted the
rest of the night.

Elyse had had enough. She had spent too much time and energy on this
ridiculous man. When she took him back to her apartment that night, she
was going to slip on a pair of comfortable slippers. And boy, was she
hungry.

Hope you enjoyed it! Let me know if you check out the Cramp. Would love to know about your experiences!

24 comments:

That was great! My favorite sentence: She had...eaten a couple of them. For some reason the title made me think of the emperor's new clothes, so I was expecting some kind of twist along those lines. I totally forgot about the cannibal part! So I was totally taken by surprise, and loved it! :)

Wow, it's really creepy story but I like it a lot ;) It's short but dynamic and interesting; a lot happens in it - magic lamp and genie, being a cannibal and cannibal's shoes thing. You should turn it into longer story ;))

This was the title that drew me in to read and comment on this story first. :) I really like it--creepiness is really interesting and fun to read for me. And because the guy Josh seemed like such a jerk to me, I'm happy he gets what's coming to him, lol! :O

I really enjoyed reading 'Beauty and the shoe'. It was so gripping that i was sat glued to my chair unable to move! I loved the eerie quality to it and how you painted the characters, that stood out and were all quite distinctive. It was just very enjoyable to read.x

Oh my gosh. THAT WAS AMAZING, the twist on Beauty and the Beast is simply hilarious, and totally plausible, too. As I started reading, I was wondering where you were going with this, but once I found out... Wow. Great story c:

I loved that story, it made me smile and snicker a few times and I really like your writing style Christina, I look forward to when you finally publish a book of your own, because I believe in you as a great writer and I think you should give it a try and even if you have to, self publish it, if you have to.